Captain John Rowan (US Navy)
Captain John J. Rowan (September 6, 1919 – October 6, 2012) was an American Navy Captain.
Rowan graduated from the United States Naval Academy in December 1941. His first tour of duty as a newly commissioned Ensign was aboard the USS Vincennes (CA-44), a heavy cruiser, which was sunk in the first Battle of Savo Island. Ensign Rowan with only a life jacket waited five hours in the water until rescued.
After his rescue, he was assigned to the USS North Carolina (BB-55) for three months and then transferred to the USS De Haven (DD-469).
Eight weeks after his assignment on the USS De Haven (DD-469), it was sunk in the second Battle of Savo Island. Ensign Rowan sustained injuries and was in the water for two hours until rescued by an LCT which the ship had been escorting. After the second rescue, he spent the next seven months recuperating from injuries in the San Diego Naval Hospital. While recuperating, he met and married Miss Mary Thompson (Durham, North Carolina), who was working at the hospital.
He returned to duty aboard the USS Blue (DD-744) and in late August 1945 he was the senior officer of the boarding party from the USS Blue (DD-744) that accepted the surrender of the I-400 class submarine, then the world’s largest submarine.
He later received a citation for his participation on the Vincennes during the Jimmy Doolittle Tokyo Raid.
He also served on the USS Swenson (DD-729), and the staff of ComDesRon TWO where he spent the remaining two years of the war and the first three post war years.
After attending Postgraduate School in communications at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1948, Rowan was assigned to duty on the staff of ComCruDesPac in 1949 as Communications Officer and in 1952 to NavCommFac, London, as Executive Officer.
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